A UNIQUE Chinese tea kettle that belonged to Queen Elizabeth I fetched more than a million pounds at auction.

The Queen is said to have given the ten inch-high kettle - one of the first pieces of imperial porcelain to arrive in England - to her chaplain, the Bishop of Worcester, Henry Parry, who was at her deathbed in 1603.

The silver-mounted Ming "Wucai" kettle, painted in vibrant enamel and depicting songbirds and peach trees, was sold at Sotheby's in Hong Kong for £1,079,000 on Sunday - way over the upper estimate of £785,000.

Bishop Parry (1561-1616) was known as "a preacher of unusual excellence" and regarded by James I as "one of the best he ever heard".

Alastair Gibson, head of the Chinese department at Sotheby's, said: "It is a wonderful, exotic and historic piece which, at the time, would have blown people's minds.

"You never saw porcelain in Europe then - it just didn't exist.

"Everything was dully and tawdry and people were mainly eating off metal. The piece symbolises a new age of travel and exploration and we are delighted with the sale."